After changing server IP's Accounts disappeared

[vincentg]

This was not much fun

Server has recent version of Centos 64 bit OS

Changed the IP's and checked everything and after all looked perfect we changed the password and rebooted.

Called in to get license updated to remove trial screen.

Try to login again and find that only old IP was working.
Try to login and could not as password old or new would not work.
Got the password reset and found Cpanel decided to alter everything that was changed.

The main server IP was reverted back and the User Account was gone.
Folders in home missing.

So we changed everything back to new settings and restarted the network and ipaliases
Found IP's were missing in IP list entered all server IP's and restarted ipaliales
Accounts gone again

in /usr/cpanel/ user files gone - cache files gone

Had to restore accounts from backup

It's working now but if this is what happens when you try to change server IP's then it's best to re-install OS.

Is this a new feature of Cpanel?

 

[Infopro]

in /usr/cpanel/ user files gone

What user files were located here? There is no /usr/cpanel/ directory. Users are located in /home/

 

[vincentg]

Sorry it was
/var/cpanel/users

Account files was missing in that folder and in users.cache/

So restore from backup was the only way to get it back.
The next day we find the server dns record had wrong IP and worse the clients website has a 500 error
Found out that DBD:Mysql was gone
Had to re-install that.

Cpanel's finial word on this is they don't support changing Server IP's - they expect you to setup your IP's once and not change them.

So based on that you need to do a clean OS install and a new install of Cpanel then go to backup.
Hell of a way to run a railroad.

 

[Infopro]

Cpanel's finial word on this is they don't support changing Server IP's - they expect you to setup your IP's once and not change them.

Could you please provide me with the ticket ID where you were told that?

Thanks.

 

[vincentg]

David Nelson - Ticket 4365901
Thanks for the reply. Keep in mind that changing IP addresses isn't really supported; we can do our best to clean up afterwards, but cPanel operates under the assumptions that your main IP address isn't going to change, and IP addresses will never get removed.

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From my viewpoint even if some setting was not made correct it shouldn't have things disappear.
It also shouldn't auto reset settings.
Email the tech of the problem - log the problem and let the tech do the rest - that's what should happen

 

[Infopro]

Thank you for the update. I'll see about having someone clarify all of this for you proper, asap.

 

[Brian]

Howdy,

I think David had some miscommunication there when trying to describe supporting server IP change. cPanel & WHM certainly does support changing the server's main IP address. That's why the Main Shared IP is editable under the "WHM -> Basic cPanel & WHM Setup" section and we have the IP Migration Wizard.

What David was likely trying to communicate is that the network and OS level changes needed to effect a main shared IP change for the primary network interface is not something cPanel's support staff will directly assist with. It would be at the responsibility of the server owner to work with their hosting provider for those network level and OS level (/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts) changes to ensure the box is functional on the newly desired IP. None of those steps involve cPanel & WHM software.

All things related to cPanel & WHM are of course supported.

Reading through your ticket and the claimed loss of data and reverting of software versions, it really does sound like at some point you had connected to two different servers. This is something that sometimes occurs for users when they're trying to do exactly what you're doing and switch main IPs between servers. Despite that the IP you're connected to was the one you expected, perhaps the physical machine itself was not the one you expected to connect to. Were you ever trying to migrate between boxes? This would line up and explain every oddity you've itemized.

Performing an IP change instantiates no code that would remove an account, revert Perl module versions, etc. The most plausible origin cause for such a massive reversal would simply be connecting to a different physical server than expected. That, or some other catastrophic system failure. I understand that it seems all too coincidental, but there simply is no code path that would be able to cause those changes when performing IP modifications. The only items that would even be modified would be items like: /etc/wwwacct.conf, /etc/named.conf/, /var/named/<domain>.db, /var/cpanel/userdata/, etc. It doesn't do any sweeping changes, upgrades, etc.